Included this year, not for the first time, are not movies from my 2019 favorites list, for I am crazy and haven’t written that blog post yet.
TV
Hadn’t seen before:
- Gotham (seasons 1 – 5)
- The Umbrella Academy (season 1)
- The Witcher (season 1)
Had seen before:
- Brooklyn Nine-Nine (seasons 1 – 5)
- Dollhouse (seasons 1 – 2)
I had watched the pilot of Gotham when it first aired, but for some reason it didn’t grab me enough to watch anything past that. Toward the end of the year [2019], my brother mentioned that he had been watching it on Netflix and really liked it, so I gave it a go. I wound up really enjoying it, with the weird caveat that I didn’t really like Jim Gordon or Bruce Wayne all that much, but pretty much loved every villain, especially Penguin and Riddler.
My brother also told me he’d watched The Witcher around Christmas time. I had heard of the games, but knew nothing else about the series (e.g. that it was based on novels). It took until the fourth episode (of eight) until it clicked with me, and even then, it wasn’t my favorite thing ever, but remained interesting enough that I stuck it out and will check out the next season when it becomes available. I did enjoy Henry Cavill, and the bard character.
My daughter got me to watch The Umbrella Academy, and it was pretty great. I really liked the characters, especially Klaus, Five, and Hazel. I’m looking forward to season 2.
After watching Buffy and Angel (and Firefly), my daughter wanted more Joss Whedon, so we watched Dollhouse together. It was great, as always.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine is one of my TV shows, and once I finally activated our free Hulu account, I began rewatching it, this time with my kids. They all loved it, and it’s the only show that I can imagine tolerating sitting through the ads to watch. As my youngest said, “If God and Humor had a baby, that baby would be Andy Samberg.” I also showed my children Hot Rod and my daughter got to watch Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping with my wife.
Movies
Hadn’t seen before:
- Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- Beauty and the Beast (2017)
- Detective Pikachu
- Glass
- Split
- Waiting
- Wanted
Had seen before:
- Across the Universe
- American Pie
- Ant-Man
- Ant-Man and the Wasp
- Batman: Year One
- Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
- Black Panther
- Captain America: The First Avenger
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier
- Captain America: Civil War
- Daredevil
- Die Hard
- Die Hard 2: Die Harder
- Die Hard With a Vengeance
- Live Free or Die Hard
- A Good Day to Die Hard
- Doctor Strange
- Fun With Dick and Jane
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
- Hook
- The Incredible Hulk
- Iron Man
- Iron Man 2
- Iron Man 3
- Justice League: Gods and Monsters
- Justice League vs. Teen Titans
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
- Mission: Impossible II
- The Nightmare Before Christmas
- Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
- Spider-Man: Homecoming
- Thor
- Thor: The Dark World
- Thor: Ragnarok
- The Tigger Movie
- Unbreakable
- The Whole Nine Yards
- Winnie the Pooh
When Black Friday came around, Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was on sale along with some other DC movies I wanted to buy, so I picked it up as well. It was far better than I expected it to be.
I bought the live-action Beauty and the Beast remake for my wife and daughter a couple of years ago, but it remained unopened on the shelf until recently when my daughter told me we should watch it and the animated classic back-to-back. I’d seen the first 15 or 20 minutes before, and was not a fan, and I remain not a fan after watching the entire thing. Still love the animated version, though.
I originally had no interest in Detective Pikachu, but one of the trailers convinced me to give it a go once it came to disc. I got it from Netflix, and it was also far better than I expected it to be, so I bought it on Black Friday.
I had originally seen Unbreakable shortly after it released, and hated it. Like, hated it. I don’t remember exactly why, but it just rubbed me the wrong way. I wanted to watch Split after reading good reviews, and generally enjoying James McAvoy, so I did, and then rewatched Unbreakable before watching Glass. All three are in the “didn’t hurt to watch that” category, with the qualifier that James McAvoy was amazing.
I watched Wanted at a friend’s house, at his suggestion. It was OK.
I watched Waiting on Amazon Prime one night, solely because it starred Ryan Reynolds. It was funny.
Video Games
First-time plays:
- Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer Featuring The Legend of Zelda
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Replays:
- New Super Luigi U
- Pikmin 2
- Pikmin 3
- Super Mario World
Cadence of Hyrule came out of nowhere at E3, and I’m a sucker for all things Zelda so I got it. It was really fun, though I eventually enabled fixed beat mode because it was so much easier.
I also finally got a chance to play A Link Between Worlds, which I’ve been wanting to do for a while. It was a really great 2D Zelda entry, and I hope it eventually becomes available on the Switch or something.
My daughter and I have experienced a resurgence in playing Pikmin 3 against each other, and play most nights for a least a few matches. It inspired me to replay the story mode, as well as Pikmin 2.
I replayed Super Mario World on my SNES Classic with my youngest son, and we also played through New Super Luigi U together.